A team of astronomers
has used data collected by a trio of NASA's orbital telescopes in
order to weigh an ancient galaxy cluster dating back to 3.8 billion
years after the universe was created. Known as IDCS J1426.5+3508
(IDCS 1426), the cluster is the largest structure of its kind ever
discovered in this period. Located 10 billion light-years from Earth,
it boasts a mass of 500 trillion times that of our Sun – the
equivalent of around 1,000 Milky Ways.

Astronomers believe
that an analysis of clusters such as IDCS 1426 could lead to a better
understanding of just how these colossal structures came to form in
the early universe. The study made use of data collected by NASA's
Spitzer and Hubble telescopes, as well as the Chandra X-ray
Observatory and the Keck Observatory situated in Mauna Keo, Hawai'i.

The team was able to
calculate the galaxy cluster's mass using three independent
techniques. One method saw astronomers observe the imprint that the
mass of IDCS 1426 made on
the cosmic microwave background radiation, while another measured the
mass needed to confine the X-ray emitting gas to the cluster.
Finally, the team observed the extent to which the light from
galaxies behind IDCS 1426 was distorted by the cluster's mass.

Under current models,
it is expected that a galaxy cluster would take several billion years
to fully coalesce. However, the vast distances between Earth and IDCS
1426 means that we are observing a version of the cluster as it
existed when the universe was only 3.8 billion years old, meaning
that the cluster is still in a relatively early stage of its
evolutionary process.

According to data
harvested by the telescopes, IDCS 1426 is composed of roughly 90
percent dark matter. The observations also highlighted a
number of bright X-ray sources that appear to have shifted roughly
100,000 light years away from the cluster's center.

This could hint at a
cataclysmic collision with another embryonic galaxy cluster, which
the team believes could have occurred some 500 million years
previously. This collision could have spurred an increase in the
cluster's evolutionary rate, a theory which is supported by the
otherwise smooth distribution of gas throughout the rest of the
cluster.

However, despite this
growth spurt, the galaxy cluster was recorded as having lower than
expected quantities of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium.
This could be the result of the cluster's relatively juvenile nature,
having yet to undergo enough supernova explosions to enrich its gas.

"The presence of this
massive galaxy cluster in the early Universe doesn't upset our
current understanding of cosmology," states Anthony Gonzalez of the
University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, who co-authored a
paper on the research. "It does, however, give us more information
to work with as we refine our models."